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User blog:Carol of the bells/Days of Ruin (Revised): Chapter 2, part 2
“What are you doing?” It was a simple question. Ko was not normally driven by curiosity, and thus that was not the reason he was asking the question. However, as he passed the garden wall, even he could not help but be dumbfounded by his brother’s sheer stupidity. He prided himself in his intellect, but, try as he might, he could find no answer on his own. Which was why he asked the question. Just barely hanging over the garden wall was Riku. This in of itself was not particularly amusing, except for the fact that he was standing on Kaine’s shoulders. Both brothers were turned slightly to face Ko, and they appeared as children who had been caught doing something awful. “What?” Riku asked innocently, though his wide eyes and the sweat collecting around his face betrayed him. “What are you doing?” Ko repeated, eyes narrowing slightly. For a moment, they had no answer. Riku opened his mouth before closing it again, then opening it. His appearance was kin to that of a guilty fish. “We saw something,” Kaine quickly answered. “What did you see?” Ko pressed. This time Kaine had no answer. Riku interjected, and without realizing he was doing it, shouted, “A bird!” The eldest brother was clearly not amused as he stared at them. “It was a suspicious bird,” Kaine deadpanned. Ko resisted the heavy urge to sigh. His shadow flickered beneath him before it reached out, grabbing the two brothers by the back of their collars. Riku flailed a bit as his shadow retracted, dropping them unceremoniously in a pile before him. “Father wants you at the sparring grounds,” He said, looking down at them. “Y-yup! Be right there!” Riku held out a thumbs-up. Without another word, Ko turned and went back inside the mansion. Riku and Kaine quickly untangled themselves, standing up. “I told you we should have just gone through the front door,” Kaine muttered, glaring at his brother from behind his mask. “I assumed that would have been too obvious,” Riku snapped, “My mistake. But,” He held up a finger, “Now that we’ve tried it once, he won’t think that we’ll try it again!” He moved to head for the garden wall when Kaine grabbed his arm and stopped him. “You don’t really believe that, do you?” He sighed, his shoulders sagging. “No. It’s just…I hate sitting here, doing nothing. Meanwhile, she’s out there, and…” Kaine moved his hand to his brother’s shoulder and gave it a pat. “You and I both know she’s fine. I know you hate to admit it, but Zen wouldn’t want our help anyway.” He didn’t reply. “Besides,” he quickly added, sensing Riku’s sullen mood, “It won’t take long for one of us to get out of here and check on her. It’ll be fine, you’ll see.” Riku nodded, smiling weakly. “Yeah. Thanks.” *** The sparring grounds were located in the courtyard in the eastern portion of the mansion. It was about twenty-two by nineteen feet. Here, Hisagi oversaw the matches between his children. When Riku and Kaine arrived, their father and the rest of their brothers were already there. “Riku, Kaine,” Hisagi addressed his youngest sons with a raised brow, “You’re late.” Riku chuckled awkwardly. “Ah, we were…uh…in the garden.” He glanced at Ko who stared back knowingly. Hisagi sighed, waving him off. “It doesn’t matter. You two are first.” They positioned themselves on either side of the courtyard. Riku felt a cold sweat fall down his face. Until he stood where he was now, he had forgotten how much he hated the sparring sessions. Their father would punish whoever lost, and if they didn’t fight at their best, if they faked defeat, it would be worse. He stared into his brother’s masked face, a feeling of dread sinking into his gut. He wasn’t worried about the sparring match. He was worried about what would happen afterwards. He had forgotten what kind of home they lived in. “Two minutes,” Hisagi instructed, hands folded behind his back. “Begin.” In what seemed like a split second, Kaine was already in front of him, swinging a right hook aimed at his head. Riku ducked countering with a kick. It was blocked, skillfully, before he found himself stumbling back from a blow to his chest. A short cough returned the air to his lungs as he struck out with his fist. Kaine grabbed his arm with both hands and kicked up. His boot connected with Riku’s chin, knocking him flat on his back. He rolled to the side, dodging another attack before jumping back up to his feet and countering. He managed to hit Kaine square on the jaw. He stumbled back a few steps, but stayed upright. “I don’t get why you do it,” Haku muttered. Hisagi didn’t bother to look his way as he asked, “Don’t get what?” He rolled his eyes in irritation. “Why you purposely pit them against each other. You know Riku is going to lose—he wouldn’t dream of hurting Kaine.” “Maybe that’s the problem I’m trying to root out,” He chuckled. “Riku is falling behind. His attachment to his brother is holding him back.” “Under what circumstance would Riku ever have to battle Kaine?” Haku hissed. “There’s no need to ‘root out’ anything. Is all of this,” He swung his arm out, motioning to the rest of the house, “More import to you?” He sighed. “Ah, one day you’ll understand, son. We hold a very tedious position. If Riku should become the successor one day, he needs to be ready to battle his own brethren. Our family breeds its own enemies, just to save itself for a short while.” Haku knew what he spoke of. After Hisagi died, Ko would take his place, and the rest of the Samui children would be required to leave the mansion as Ko became the head of the family. However, in the incident that the oldest child was to die, the next oldest child would take his place, and so on. In a sense, they were all training to become head of the family. “And it’s never occurred to you to change that?” he demanded. He shrugged carelessly. “What can I say? I’m a traditionalist.” Haku didn’t have a chance to further argue his point as a shout was heard. Their attention returned to the fight as Riku was stumbling back, rubbing at his eyes furiously. It looked as if Kaine had thrown dirt in his eyes. Though he had a perfect opening to deliver a fatal strike, Kaine hesitated, just long enough for Riku to strike out blindly, catching him square in the chest, knocking him flat on his back. “Enough,” Hisagi ordered. Riku wiped the dirt from his eyes and moved to help his brother up. “Leave him.” He hesitated, glancing at his father, but obeyed. Kaine pushed himself up on his feet, his breathing unsteady. His head hung in shame as he refused to look up at his father, who watched him with cold blue eyes. “Kaine,” Hisagi addressed him casually, though his intentions were hostile, “You had the upper hand, and you gave it up. What happened?” Kaine looked over at Riku, who stared at him with frightened eyes, pleading with him not to tell the truth. They both knew why he did it. Hisagi didn’t have to know. “Because,” The younger brother finally spoke, “I…didn’t want to harm Riku.” “I thought I’ve explained this before,” Hisagi sighed heavily, “If you don’t hurt Riku now, someone else will do it. You wouldn’t want that, would you? No. I know it’s unpleasant, but this training is necessary to find out who is weak before you pay for it with your lives. There are people who want us dead, Kaine, do you understand that? Or would you rather our whole family be dissolved?” Kaine remained silent. Hisagi’s eyes narrowed. “Ritz, do me a favor a deliver the punishment for me.” Everyone, except Ko, went rigid. “What?” Ritz asked, stunned by the request. “No!” Riku shouted, “That will kill him!” “Forget it,” Ritz murmured, “I’m not going to do it. Just let him go, will you?” “If you don’t do it,” Hisagi replied calmly, “I will. We both know you don’t want that. At least if you do it yourself, he might live long enough to hate you for it.” He smirked. “Well?” Ritz glared at his father and gritted his teeth, but began moving towards the courtyard. Haku stopped him with a hand on his shoulder, staring at him in desperation. Ritz wordlessly pushed past him. As he approached, Riku suddenly flung himself on the ground between him and his younger brother, face planted in the dust. “Please, don’t do this,” Riku begged, “I’ll take it, I’ll take the punishment! Please…you’ll kill him…” “Haku, get him out of here,” Ritz called to his twin. He hurried over and pulled Riku to his feet, ushering him away as he shouted his protests. Kaine clenched his jaw as he met his brother’s gaze, but he stood tall. “Sorry, Ritz spoke softly, readying his fist. “I’ll get Riku to patch you up afterwards…” He cracked a small, sad smile. “I know.” He drew in a deep breath. He cracked his knuckles. He tensed his arm. Anything to put it off, to delay the inevitable, if just for one more second. Kaine sent him a reassuring nod. Better to get it over with. Ritz swung, hard. He didn’t even mean to, but Hisagi knew he couldn’t hold back his strength. Now Ritz was cursing himself with every fiber of his being as he heard Kaine’s staggered gasp and felt bone under his fist. No doubt he had just broken a rib. He followed through with another punch. And another. And another. Soon he felt a sticky substance coat his knuckles. Blood. His brother’s blood. He didn’t know how much time passed before Kaine finally fell over. He didn’t get back up. Ritz stared long and hard at the motionless body, begging it to move. Kaine’s chest rose and fell slightly. He was breathing. He was alive. His cracked mask revealed one of his closed eyes. He was unconscious. That may have saved his life. Riku was already rushing to Kaine’s side, scooping him up to rush him to the infirmary. He didn’t cast Ritz a second glance as he ran past him and disappeared into the mansion. Hisagi gave an amused smile and also retreated to the indoors. Ko, seeing that there was nothing left to observe, followed him, leaving the twins. Ritz clenched his fist and stared at the crimson that stained his skin. It dripped from his knuckles and fell to the earth, taunting him. He felt Haku’s hand on his shoulder. “Let’s go,” He urged quietly. The brunette waited a moment before asking, “Do you think he’ll hate me?” “Who, Kaine? Probably not.” “I was talking about Riku.” “Oh.” He let out a long tired sigh. “What’s the point of all this, Haku? We train, we work hard, we beat each other, and for what? One day, we’ll all be outcasts from this place.” He shook his head. “It’s just not worth it.” Haku gave his brother a pat on his shoulder. “I could pretend to know what to say right now, but I don’t. Considering how things are here, maybe it would just be better if we all did leave. If anything, look forward to that.” He smiled bitterly. The two brothers returned to the house, leaving silence behind them in the blood-stained courtyard. Category:Blog posts